When I Choose....Healthy....Love....

There was a great deal of love in last weekend's Liturgical celebrations. It was Mother's Day. The sacred scriptures chosen for the celebrations were an excellent choice. In the Gospel we heard the command of Jesus,"to love one another". In the second reading we were reminded by The Beloved Disciple," that God is love". We must always keep in mind it is not love, that is God, but it is God who is love. There is a whale of a difference between the two. We are further reminded by St. John of the fact it is not that we have loved God, but that He has loved us. William Johnston adds, "it is not that I give love, but that I receive love". This will result in we being able to love in the way we have been loved by God. God IS the source of all healthy love. When we are not connected with the source of real love, then we will end up being the source of another's unbelief/disbelief. Tough words to swallow. To my way of thinking that is true. We are told today we have with God what we have in our human experience. (For better or for worse.) When I am told I am loved by someone am I not entitled to think and expect the following. "Love is patient, love is kind, love takes no offense, and is not resentful." Now that person who says that they “love me" does not reflect that in the reality of their actions, then confusion sets in. They become the targets of "the loving person's" impatience, prejudice, rash judgments, resentment, and they find out that this “loving person" is easily offended. They is no connection between the "inward belief and the outward actions". I have found this not only does this lead to confusion, but to the rejection of God, and in some cases to the possibility of the existence of a God. We are ever and always working on integrity. That is matching our outward action with our inward beliefs. That is the ideal, and we are always coming up a little short. So it gets back to us doing what we can do, and surrendering what we cannot do into the mercy-full hands of our gracious, and so understanding Father God. This allows us to be driven and shepherded, to the, oh so mysterious land of grace. We will each travel our own unique trail to that place of mystery. It is not an easy journey. We do not need the journey to be made more difficult, than it already is, by the “false prophets”. These "false, self righteous, prophets" place imaginary obstacles in the way. I say, imaginary, because they are the result of their uninformed minds. What they are saying and projecting has nothing to do with the reality of the God of Jesus Christ. I have met with literally thousands of people who have been in inner conflict because they take as “gospel” the uniformed "garbage" of these so called, “good catholics”. I have also encountered so called Christians who "cherry pick" the gospels to satisfy their prejudiced position. The spiritual garbage that is loaded onto the victims of this baloney; if, guilt, anger, resentment, boredom, anxiety, greed and envy. Pretty serious stuff. How can any person have a healthy relationship with ones’ self, or anyone else with all of that “stuff". This negates a healthy relationship with God. A codependent one ? Oh YES!! A healthy one no!!! Conversion must happen, and it will not be easy. The god of the false prophets, once given a footing, is not easily exorcised. This false god ,or gods have our egos as an ally. This is the war that is ever and always being waged in the depths of our souls. Are we doomed? Of course not. What is the antidote to all that poisonous, death-dealing, garbage? The presence of a healthy person, who themselves are seeking, and searching for that which will lead them to wholeness, to holiness. We are the need of one with an open heart, and an open mind. A person who instead of telling what to do, shares with us their story. In the telling of their story there comes to us the great gift of hope. so we come to believe, as it was with them, we begin to trust in the fact, so it can be with us. There is the foundation of trust leading to belief. We experience a love that is unconditioned, unlimited and unrestricted. A love that can only have the life giving God as it's source. The miracle of grace happens. We are in the beginning stage of being birthed into a new way of acting, thinking and living. It is in that order , and not in any other, that this great miracle of grace happens. "When love awakens in you life, in the night of your heart, it is like he dawn breaking within you. Where before there was anonymity, now there is intimacy; where before there was fear, now there is courage; where before in your life there was awkwardness, now there is a rhythm of grace and gracefulness; where before you used to be jagged, now you are elegant and in rhythm with yourself. When love awakens in your life, it is like a rebirth, a new beginning...The human heart in never completely born. Though the human body is born complete in one moment, the birth of the human heart is an ongoing process. It is being birthed in every experience of your life." John O'Donoghue in his spiritual classic, "Anam Cara" the Gaelic for Soul Friend.

The Wounded...Risen...Good Shepherd, Part 2

Each morning as I eat my breakfast, I read the paper. I, as you may well guess, go to the sports page first. Then, I look at the inside of the first page to see what the thought of the day is. I prepare myself for weighty thought by reflecting on the chuckle proposed for that day. Quite a beginning? This last Saturday, this was the thought for that day. It was a quotation from the great Albert Schweitzer, "In everyone's life, at some time, our inner flame goes out. It is then burst into flame again by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who kindle the inner spirit". It quickly dawned on me that this fits right into this ongoing reflection on the post Easter experiences of The Risen Christ and His followers. They were disturbed, disillusioned and disheartened. They were at this stage very lost “as sheep without a shepherd”. (We all know that feeling, even though we may not want to admit it, or speak about it.) It is then Good Shepherd time. It is now not just the Good Shepherd who seeks them out, it is the Wounded Good Shepherd who is seeking and searching for the lost and lonely. He is able to show those in the throws of grieving, that death is not an end, it is a beginning of a new way of seeing, believing, and being. This is not going to be easy. That is why, in some Gospel accounts, Jesus who became the Risen Christ, spent such a long time to allow this new way of seeing, believing and thinking to occur. He made effort after effort to ease this transition, but was He totally successful? He had to leave them on the Mount of The Ascension while they were still in doubt. The followers were able to worship The Risen Christ and still doubted. Who says we have to have it wired for God to be able to with us, in us and through us. Those worshipping doubters were sent forth to preach this new, revolutionary, Gospel, and change the world??? Thomas, the unbeliever, would have been on that mountain. I do not call him “doubting Thomas", that would give doubting a bad name. (Yes, I do repeat myself.) He was unbelieving or disbelieving, not doubting. I like that definition of Faith as, "doubt grounded in hope". Megan McKenna, in her book, And Morning Came, expresses these thoughts. She begins with John 20:24-25, and then continues, " Two lines and the truth is told. Someone was missing. The community was not whole or together. Thomas absented himself. Why? Perhaps his reason is hidden in his name twin. When people are living in fear and insecurity many want to be with others and some, who have other opinions, an alibi, prefer to go out on their own. Thomas had an out. If he was recognized as one of Jesus' disciples, he could always feign ignorance and say, “oh you must mean my twin brother”. Has he gone back to the old way of life, before he met Jesus and went off as part His company? Has he parted company with them now there is persecution and the possibility that he may be arrested? It would seem so. The other ten disciples who have traveled with him and Jesus, prayed, eaten, learned, and been His followers, all try to tell him the same story: “we have seen the Lord!”. And he steadfastly refuses to believe any of them. He flat out rejects the community's word, hope, and the passing on of Jesus' command. He won't listen, obey, or believe them. He might, but he has his own criteria for belief--very callous, insensitive, and violent criteria, impossible in his mind to fulfill. He wants to see for himself and then he wants to open up the wounds of Jesus again, sticking his fingers in the nail holes and thrusting his hand into his side, to see if He bleeds and is really Jesus? It is insulting, degrading and horrible to think about. So, a week later, none of them has moved. His refusal, his selfish response to their hope and newborn belief is to kill it dead, abort it. Thomas, one of their own, is the reason fear prevails and none of them obey Jesus' Word. A week goes by, seven days, signifying a lifetime, an entire cycle of life, and this time he is with them. McKenna next quotes John 20:26-29, and then goes on to write, "This is the third peace, the peace of the Spirit, breathed upon them, the Spirit that forgives and holds bound those who need to be held bound. It is given to all, this peace that is forgiveness, but now Jesus shows the disciples how to hold one another bound. Thomas has paralyzed the community his disbelief and refusal to obey the word that was brought to him, seeking to obey Jesus’ command to them. He has insisted on impossible personal attention because he wasn’t with the community, a decision he made by his own free will. Now Jesus turns towards Thomas and singles him out, call his bluff repeating his own words back to him, holding him bound to actually try and do what he claimed for his criteria. He tells him, in this translation, “Do not doubt but believe”, but so many other translations read, "Do not persist in your unbelief, but believe". This is not doubt, this is stubbornness and hardness of heart that has hurt the whole community. This often happens in community and is not to be tolerated and allowed to go “unchecked". As it was with the first followers so it is with us, his followers of today. How often have we met disbelieving Thomas within ourselves, our families, our places of work, our Faith communities and our church. It is at this time and in that place of loss we find ourselves, that we need the presence of The Wounded risen Shepherd. Our needs are always met. Not in the way we expect them to be met, but in the mysterious ways of God. He whose appearance brought Thomas to faith will make His presence known to us in and through an encounter with the transformed wounds of another human being. In our pain and struggle another human being is placed in our path as the contemporary Wounded, Risen Good Shepherd. (That is a mouth full???) That living person will convey life to us as their story is told. They have been given the courage to share with us their pain of disbelief, disillusionment, disconnectedness and discouragement. They will tell us of the struggle to pray, to have any connection with a Higher Power, to have trust in a God that really cared for them in their screwed-up-ness. Somehow, in some mysterious way, the scales of fear are lifted. We begin to see in a new way, and begin to live a new life. It will be a contemporary Easter story. The Wounded Risen Good Shepherd is alive and well, aching to reveal Himself to us in a very personal way, and through us to all of His creation.

The Wounded....Shepherd, Part I

We are in Easter Time, Paschal Time, and will be for some time to come. We are being immersed ever deeper into The Mystery of the wonder-full, awe-full events that took place 2,000 years ago. As we are drawn into the mystery of the Gospel narratives, we are led to the following understanding. The events we read about, though occuring many years ago, are be lived out by you and I, today. As it was with the historical Jesus, Who became The Risen Christ, so it is with us who bear the name Christian. To help us with this mystery, we must grasp, understand the following; in the spiritual life there no time, there is no space. God, in spite of our greatest efforts, cannot be controlled, defined, or confined, to anything we may feel, think or say. We can and do, pay lip service to the fact that "God's ways are not our ways , and His thoughts are not our thoughts". Let's be very honest here, when it comes down to the real nitty, gritty, we want it our way. How often is God told to hit the road in time of pain-full struggle? When things do not happen the way we expect them to happen, there is a serious, volcanic spiritual eruption. A lot of people in our lives are effected, not for the good, when we do not get our way and our expectations are not met. I have to keep before me, it is right in front of me as I do the dishes, "Expectations are planned resentments". I am not always happy to be reminded of that reality. Even though I repeat it again, and again, I still am blindsided. Joe then, is not a very happy camper. The only thing that I can say is, I am now more ready to laugh at myself than I have ever been. I love the following; "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans". I have kept God in great humor over these many years. The Gospel narratives reveal to us how "anxious, shocked, distressed and distraught” the followers of Jesus were, on that first Easter morning. On Friday, their world, as they understood it, had been turned upside down. He, Whom they had followed, and had great expectations of, was not only dead, but His body was not in the tomb. Then, they are told He has risen from the dead, and has even appeared to some the people they knew. What was this all about? It is too much to grasp, to understand. They are afraid confused, bothered, and bewildered. They seem to be, "sheep without a shepherd". With the death of Jesus who is there now to feed, nourish, guide, and direct them? They are now faced with the feelings of being lost and so alone. As it was with those early followers of Jesus, so it with us today, when we are forced, by life, to encounter death, loss. When they are at their lowest, The Risen Christ appears. Even though He is risen, He has His wounds to show them. The Risen one carries the wounds of His crucifixion. We must always keep that reality ever before us. The Risen one is also The Wounded one. So too with each one of us. When we are wounded, not if we are wounded, and in time experience healing and new life, (our personal death, and resurrection) we must always remember the soul in NEVER cured, it is cared for. When we stop doing the caring, then we will revert back into the experience of the crucifixion. We can compound our mistake, by looking for some poor scapegoat to blame. When we get into the 'blaming game" we are on a slippery slope leading to even more serious pain and sorrow. Now we are going to alienate others, when it is the strength of others, the community, we need. We as human beings will belong to the community of "wounded-wounders”, or belong to the community of wounded-healers". That is a prerequisite for belonging to a Christian community, which is a community of wounded-healers. We are following in the footsteps of our Wounded Good Shepherd. As we immerse ourselves in the Gospel accounts of that First Day of a new creation, what a shepherd He shows Himself to be. He is out and about offering reassurance to those who were disturbed, disillusioned and disheartened. He was seeking out and searching out those who seemed to be the most lost. We have the example of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He was seeking out Mary in The Garden. Then there was Thomas. He was the disbelieving, unbelieving one, not the doubting one. I believe that in calling him, "doubting Thomas" we give doubting a bad name. Thomas was in real bad shape. He was not with the community. He choose to grieve alone, in private he was doing his grieving. How destructive that was and as it was so it is for us today. Even though we want to grieve alone, it is destructive. Look how unfeeling he had become. Look what he wanted to do to Jesus? Read again what he demanded happen in order for him to believe in the Risen Christ. Was that the request of a compassionate follower or who was in the throes of grieving a loss? With the help of Megan McKenna we will delve deeper in the suffering Thomas, and his presence within you and I today.

Is This Too Good to Be Really True?

I love children's Liturgies. The unexpected must always be expected. They, not like other liturgies, have a certain innate messiness that is always to be accepted and embraced. That has always been my mindset as I began the celebration of "the little darlings" Masses. If I had any other thoughts then I was in a bad place, and the celebration was not as nourishing. There was a certain rigidity present that somehow took away from the celebration. I had to have a certain mindset to really be able to celebrate with the kids.

I have always made a point of asking the children if they had any questions for me. There is always a great risk involved here. You cannot, and I mean cannot, program those questions. That is why it can be scary. You see kids are honest. I have found out that the younger the child, the deeper the question, and the more honest it is. Recently, I had the school mass at St. John Bosco. After my "FEW" word I said the usual, "any questions for me today?" One little fellow came up with this brilliant question; “How come God gives us chance after chance, and our parents do not?" Boy does he have the Mercy, and Compassion of God, down real pat. How many of us have that mind set? I am sad to say from my experience not too many. As a result, we live our lives in the prisons of guilt, fear, and shame. We live there by choice, not because of anything God has said or done. We spend our whole lives wishing to live in the freedom that is God's merciful, dream, Ashling, for us. When it is offered to us we fight the gift. Why? The gift will force us to live in a new way. We have become so comfortable living in crap, we are afraid to let go of the familiar and embrace this new way of real living. What we thought was "life", was really the work of illusion, and hence was not life affirming. How dearly we hang onto the illusions, and never get to embrace reality, hence never knowing the reality of God. God can only be found in the deepest reality.

This weekend is Divine Mercy weekend. To build on what was written a few weeks ago, we can say this is a further journey into how to enjoy “the shower” of the oil of God's mercy. (I wonder how many have taken the advice given?). Now it is going to get better. That is the mind set we have to have when dealing with God. No matter how He has blessed us, there are better things awaiting us. What is awaiting us, an ever deepening share in His Resurrected life. But, beware that ever deepening participation in His Risen life will only come as a result of an ever deepening emersion into His suffering and passion. That is a great source of, not happiness, but joy. Whatever we suffer we have that innate joy in knowing this IS our personal participation in The Paschal Mystery. Like all spiritual mysteries they cannot be solved only reverenced, and celebrated. In the celebration of The Paschal Mystery, which is the mass, the feelings of joy are intensified. All suffering, all death, is the threshold we must pass through so as to reach our destiny. We all have to make the difficult choice as to whether we want the security of power, and control, or the freedom to travel the journey into uncertainty? This latter is the journey of faith.

This week we get to add the qualities of Shalom, which Peace, to our reservoir from which all our showers of grace originate. Just like the word mercy has layer upon layer of meaning, so does Shalom. To translate this word by using just peace, is to sell it and so ourselves very, very short. To wish a person Shalom. is to wish them, completeness, contentment, wholeness, a sense of well being, and harmony. It also carries with it the following, tranquility, fullness, rest, absence of agitation or discord. Shalom also means to be complete, perfect and full. Wow!!, what depth of meaning goes with that word. Is it then any wonder that infinite God has to be the origin and the source of such gifts. Now when we add all of what is offered this week, to the blessings of mercy, we are really blessed. We do not have to earn, deserve, or qualify for the infinite Marcy-full, Shalom of our gracious God. All we have to do is accept the gift offered, and so be caught up in the passionate embrace of our Prodigal God, and lover. If this was so easy and common I wonder why Henri Nouwen wrote the following;

“God's mercy is greater than our sins. there is an awareness of sin that does not lead to God but to self-pre-occupation. Our temptation is to be so impressed be our by our sins and failings, and so overwhelmed by our lack of generosity that we get stuck in a paralyzing guilt. It is the guilt that says, "I am too sinful to deserve God's mercy." It is the guilt that leads to introspection instead of directing our eyes to God. It is a guilt that has become an idol and therefore a form of pride....The question is: Are we like Judas, who was so overcome by his sin that he could not believe in God's mercy any longer and hanged himself, or we like Peter who returned to the Lord with repentance and cried bitterly for his sins."

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, let us bring that part of ourselves that we hate, condemn, punish, ostracize, scourge, crucify, and allow the healing oil of our Prodigal God flow upon the broken, bruised, beaten, and betrayed parts of who we are. We must allow, yes allow, the healing, the inner tranquility, the contentment to happen to us. That is which our Gracious God has accomplished and is accomplishing in lives of so many . It is a reality we can choose to celebrate, within us. When, and if the choice is made by you and I, to paraphrase Karl Rahner, the following will happen: “God will take hold of the most hidden depths of our souls, the innermost center of our being, He will transform and glorify it. He will make it holy, the dwelling place of the divine." I read the following, and it is beginning to make sense "You cannot have true peace, without first facing life." That will be the life we are really living, not some illusion the ego has created, and is creating. We must “go deep" because, "the surface will not tell you what the deep water knows ". We will be lead through the rough storms to rest in still waters. There we can find our rest, and our contentment in the welcoming, passionate embrace of Mercy-full Shalom.

Making The Passion....Personal...Then....On To Mass

As we leave our houses, or homes, to drive or walk to church, we each will have our own thoughts, feelings and emotions. They are uniquely ours, one of a kind. Yet, because we "are spiritual beings having a human experience", there is a great deal we have in common. First, we all share the same place of origin, the infinite love of our Gracious God. It is our blessing to have such an origin, yet it is also a great curse. There is nothing in this life that will satisfy us. "You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and we will never rest until we rest in You." There will then be restlessness within each one of us. There we will always have that deep feeling that there is something missing. Nothing that we can buy, achieve, or accomplish will bring us anything like lasting happiness. We have to grow in the acceptance that in every success, is already sewn the seeds of failure, and disillusion. From our journey into the Paschal Mystery we are also exposed to, and confronted with this truth, "within every so called death, failure and loss is sewn the seeds of new life”. Because of the sufferings and death of Jesus, who became the Christ because of what He endured, we too, His now reality, will share the same experience. Jesus, The Christ of God, continues to live out the reality of His Paschal Mystery within the DAILY living of each one of us. That, every moment, daily living out of The paschal Mystery is what we all bring to each and every Eucharistic celebration, we are privileged to celebrate. If there is no conscious connection between our daily living, and the Eucharistic celebration, then we end up with, “liturgy without soul". To my way of thinking there is too much of that happening in our church, and as result so many can take or leave The Mass. Liturgy, is "the work of the people', and as such, God will provide, each and every one of us, the necessary grace for us to have a grace-filled celebration. A celebration that will always be old and new. Never, never, the same. As we bring the evolving newness of a life, that is constantly being renewed, so our liturgical celebrations “life filled”. We will be looking forward to discovering anew the to-day celebration of our unique participation of Jesus's suffering, death, burial, Resurrection, Ascension, and His sending of a new Spirit for the new life that His followers were then living. As it was then, so it is with us now, and ever shall be until we all return to our original place of Blessings. A place we never forget, keep looking for, but can never find it in our present reality, as spiritual beings, having a human experience. This begs the question, then what is left for us to do?

For the past many, many years as I leave my car and walk through the parking lot, with fellow parishioners, the following questions have surfaced. Why are these individuals, and families coming to Mass? What are they looking for that will make their sometimes troubled lives less stress-full, and more meaning-full? Where have they encountered the suffering Christ, and were not aware of His existence widen, disguised, within the flawed humanity of themselves, and those who have shared their week? Where has The Risen Christ appeared within the reality of their daily living to give hope and encouragement? The Risen Christ always dwells within the reality of daily life. Has His appearance come in at a time, or in a place where they were surprised, or even shocked? The Risen Christ, as well as the suffering Jesus has many, many disguises. We must be alert, "The Son of Man comes at a time we least expect", and He does not come where we expect Him to appear. I wish He was more predictable, and would appear on command. There goes my need to control and not have to deal with another aspect of my powerlessness. Will this ever come to and end, is a constant question of mine? The constant answer is a definite “NO, not in this life. Life is not a problem to be solved, it is a mystery to be lived", experienced and celebrated within our daily living, and the Eucharistic celebration. To make that connection more real, the following has been put in place for this year's Mass in the tent.

I asked those who are going to celebrate in the tent to give me, in one or two words, what are they struggling with and need to connect with during this year's Easter Celebration. I want each person to know their suffering, is not their suffering alone. We are NEVER alone. We may think it, feel it, even be overwhelmed with loneliness, yet we are never alone. This is a further manifestation of our spirit dwelling within a humanity that is in the process of being transformed. (Keep in mind, process takes time, and cannot be rushed.) These are our Gethsename moments already experienced with Jesus in The Garden of Olives. The work of salvation IS being accomplished in, and through these awe-full, repulsive, moments of real life. There are those who are experiencing the scourging at the pillar. They are, as Jesus was, the continuation of The Incarnation. They are not always physically flogged, although that is the reality of some, they are whipped with words and action meant to destroy any vestige of humanity. Words are such weapons in the arsenal of so the many who take the place of the Roman soldiers in the lives of so many. Verbal abuse, emotional abuse, spiritual abuse are today’s whips lashing the already suffering body. Now this is where this gets tough. We ourselves do the whipping. We ourselves do the scourging? Why? We have these unrealistic expectations that are impossible to achieve, perfectionism is the lash of choice for so many. This whip is passed down from generation to generation. Some generation must put a stop to this ongoing scourging of The Body of Christ. How many are victims of the court system? Where so often it is money and powerful connections are what decides the outcome. That is why it is pointed out to be a court of law, not justice. How many unfortunate women, and their, vulnerable children are beaten, bruised, and betrayed by that which is supposed to bring them justice. It is so sad when “might is right” to the detriment of so many. Under these cruel circumstances, The Scourging at the Pillar will continue. The pain, the anger, the frustration, has to be brought to prayer, so that The same Power who raised Jesus from the dead, will bring about new life when there is only apparent, death and destruction. When all seemed lost in the life of Jesus, it is then the Resurrection happened. As it was, so it is, and ever shall be. “I believe, help my disbelief.”

These are some of the realities being brought to Easter Mass. No sugar coating, no minimizing is allowed, or else nothing happens. We must embrace the words of The Abandoned One, The Beloved One, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”. There the historical Jesus began His journey into being The Christ of God. After the death, there was the tomb time. There is great difficulty in waiting. It is the most difficult of all reality. Something, someone, had died, a loss has happened and we are waiting for the new life. Just Jesus was risen, then we are assured that same Spirit of Creative love in now bringing a new life for us to live. For our part, we must own the ending and ask for the new Spirit for this new life we are given to live. Because many of these new realities are forced upon us, we do not have to like it. We do have to ask for the gift of acceptance. Acceptance is not an instant happening. Acceptance is a process. A process under the loving, merciful direction of The Holy Spirit. We will forever and always be given what we need, not what we want. God our gracious Father knows our deepest needs and responds to our deepest call out to Him. “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord...make haste to help me." The prayer that must be ours as we journey on the road that leads beyond suffering, and death to the new transformed life, of The Resurrection.

Our Personal....Garden of Olives....Gethsaname

This week I had the privilege of celebrating the life of a long time parishioner. The funeral liturgy calls for reflection, appreciation and thanksgiving. As we encounter death, we are confronted with what is of real and lasting value. Death, like no other reality, challenges us to take an honest look at the authenticity of our own life. Death challenges us, forces us to us to be gut honest and so face our deepest reality. Because of this, each and every encounter with death leaves us changed. The change may not appear to be earth shattering, but never the less, changed has happened. Death forces us to do that what we much prefer not to do. We do not want to look deep within and face what is revealed. As one person wrote,"human beings can only stand so much reality ". " A life not reflected has no meaning", 'Life not reflected on, is as useless as buried treasure", are two more of my favorite sayings. Then there is what the Irish poet W.B. Yeats wrote,"It takes reckless courage to journey into the depths of who we really are." We have to ask then, for that courageous honesty which will allow us to journey beyond our fears into an ever deepening intimacy with our Beloved. Intimacy comes from the two Latin words “in timor", which means into fear. There is no intimacy unless fear is faced honestly. We cannot face fear alone, it will chew us up. What we need is faith. Remember “Fear knocked on the door, faith answered”, “There was no one there". We need examples of people, who had to face their fears. Some were able to journey through their deepest anxiety. Others were not. All on reflection, have a wisdom to impart .

Jesus, was totally human, as well as totally divine. We can make the mistake of placing so much emphasis on His divinity, we lose sight of how authentically human he was. St. Paul, "He was like unto us in all things, except sin". The depths of His humanity is revealed, to us, the many excruciating moments of His Passion. The Garden of Olives, (Gethsename ) is not just a place within a city. It is a reality to be discovered and embraced within each one of us. All that has been written in the Gospels about the events in the garden, I suggest, is not given for our edification, but to be a source of encouragement. Encouragement for us when we have to endure our own Garden moments. We have had them, are having and will have them until our final agony, death. Jesus, as a rabbi, was familiar with what The Suffering Servant of Isaiah, was to endure. He asks His Father to let the cup of suffering pass from Him. Then we have His faith response to upcoming passion, "not my will but Your will be done". Does this finish the suffering? Luke in his Gospel points out that Jesus broke into a sweat of blood. Each and every one of us CAN sweat blood. This happens at the very pinnacle of anxiety. (Google “sweat of blood"). Many people make Holy Hours. It is what we can do to show solidarity with Jesus in His hour of agony. I came across the following, written by Karl Rahner.

"You want to continue your sufferings in me for my own salvation and that of the whole world, and for the glory of Your Father. By my suffering and agony, You want to fill up what is wanting in Your sufferings for Your body, which is the Church. And so, I shall receive in my life again and again a share in Your agony in the Garden of Olives, a very small share, but nevertheless a real one. My "holy hours", those hours when I honor Your agony in the Garden of Olives, will be made in the truest sense NOT during the peaceful hours of these pious devotions here in church. My real "holy hours” are those hours when sufferings of body and soul come to overwhelm me. Those hours when God hands me the chalice of suffering. Those hours when I weep for my sins. Those hours when I call out to You Father, O Jesus, and do not seem to be heard. Those hours when faith becomes agonizingly difficult, hope seems to give way to despair, and love seems to have died in my heart. They are the real "holy hours” in my life, those hours when Your grace working in my heart draws me mysteriously into Your agony in the garden. When those hours come upon me O Lord, have mercy on me. When Your agony in the Garden of Olives overshadows my life, stand by my side. Give me the grace to realize that those holy hours of Yours are a grace, that they are hours of Your life, of your agony in the Garden of Olives......Give me then the grace to say "yes, yes" to even the most bitter hours, "yeah" to everything that happens in those hours. Even if my lips stammer out words of prayer which ring as lies in my lifeless heart.....You have taken hold of the most hidden depths of our soul, the innermost center of our being. You have transformed and glorified it; You have made it holy and divine"

The depths of meaning of these words will not come to us by just reading them just once or twice. We will have to read and reflect on them again and again. Especially in time of fear, anxiety, deep concern and moments of absolute powerlessness. Times and place we visit many, many times in our lives. For some, it is sporadic, for others it is a life-long reality. Through it all, we will never suffer alone. Our Suffering Good Shepherd, who first suffered all, is now suffering in us, through us and in us. As we suffer through our Gethsename moments we must keep before us, this is the mysterious road that leads to the certainty of the Resurrection and new life.

May you use these days of the Week we call Holy, to embrace all that abhors, disgusts and frightens you. Bring all to the loving, merciful, healing, soothing, pain relieving, love of gracious Father God. This is the place where Easter 2012 will be celebrated.

The Shower of Mercy....Choose the Drops.

"The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven. Upon the plain beneath." So wrote The Bard of Avon many centuries ago. I like his image of mercy as shower of "gentle rain". That is what we need. We do not want that heavy, heavy rain that accompanies a thunderstorm. There is no gentleness in that shower. Because mercy of its essence is gentle, the shower we associate mercy must be gentle. How about a gentle mist, that falls so gentle that we are not aware of what has happened, or is happening until we become aware our clothes are damp? How gentle the morning dew? Nothing is disturbed by it, yet what a transformation is brought about by its presence? Now let the light shine on those gentle dew drops and a new wonder-full new world is revealed. This only happens when we take the time to seek and see.

Why is this seeking and searching so important? Well for starters, 75% of the Parables of our Great Teacher were about mercy and compassion. Have you noticed how often that word mercy now appears in the new Eucharistic prayer? Now that Greek word for mercy, elison, is now more present to us, it requires us to look beyond the English to the original language from which this word sprung. Mercy, we will discover to our surprise and consolation, points us to the following. We are directed to thoughts of an oil, that brings to us comfort. It is an oil which soothes pain and relieves distress. It is a dynamic gentle force that comes to us as gift, it is free and brings about freedom from within. There never a question of worthiness and this mercy asks nothing in return. If it did, it would not be a gift. This gift is way beyond our understanding. Why? We have nothing in our lived experience that can replicate, duplicate this reality. A reality that makes it's dwelling within us. Grand-parents, at times, can come close. They can only point to the possibility, however. As mercy-full and loving, our grand-parents are only fingers pointing us in the direction of the infinite mercy of our gracious Father-God.

This is a reality, because it is infinite, that cannot be "strained". We can however strain the reality and the following will surface. Behind and within we will also find the following, compassion, caring, attentiveness, fairness, tolerance, sensitivity, kindness, gentleness and responsiveness without judgment or complaint, (the Good Samaritan). We can say these are just some of the qualities of the mercy that is showered down upon us from heaven. Each and every one of us are in the need of some, or all, of these many qualities of grace, on a daily basis. Why? We are spiritual beings having a human experience. Because we are enfleshed in a humanity, that is not fully transformed, we are going to face feelings of upset, discontent, fear, worry, etc. etc. It is then we need to imagine being out in the rain, or under the shower, and what we feel in not drops of water but drops of whatever aspect of eleos, mercy, we are in most need of at that very moment. As has been suggested before whenever you take a shower, or you are caught in a shower, see it as God showering some aspect of His mercy you are in most need of right now. Here is a suggestion, make a list of all that mercy, eleos, means. Place it on the mirror in your bathroom. When you go for a shower check the tenderizing, transforming, gift you need. Make a conscious effort to own the need and claim the particular gift. Then this is what will be showered down upon you, enlivening the merciful Presence which is already within you.

An English mystic has written the following about God, “He abides patiently, He forgives easily, He understands mercifully and He, get this, forgets utterly." Now how many of us have been raised immersed, in the reality of that God? The God so many have known is the very opposite and hence a false god. One that must be not only denied, but out and out rejected. This idol must be destroyed by us, or we will be destroyed ourselves. It not easy to get rid of false gods. They have taken up a dwelling, created by us, and are easily evicted. This is where prayer and fasting comes in.

We have made it so easy to go to Hell and so difficult to go to Heaven. [If we choose to go to Hell, we will not be sent to Hell, we will have to fight every step of the way to the gates of Hell.] We must keep in mind the reality of who we are, we are the chosen, the beloved, we are ever and always "overshadowed by His love”. When we are not actively claiming who we are in God's love, beloved, we are then living a lie. We find ourselves treating ourselves not as human beings, but as human doers. The “doing” must be perfect, or else there is no vestige of lasting happiness or any semblance of satisfaction. Then the second guessing begins and the persecution, the beating up of one’s self follows. During His Sacred Passion Jesus was flogged. He was flogged by those who were just doing their job, the soldiers. The soldiers, innocent. They were following orders. Here is a question to reflect on until next week, in whose body is Jesus being flogged today, right now? Who is doing the flogging? What are the present days whips by which the contemporary Christ is flogged?

The Depths of Mercy....Leads Us to....

Saturday is, need I tell you, St.Patrick's Day. Sunday, when we surface, will be Laetare Sunday. Two days, these two days, are given over to celebration, during the Season of Lent. Laetare means, to celebrate. The first is a choice, the second is a necessity. We have been on a hard and difficult journey into the desert of our lives. There we have had to again encounter our demons, our shadow side. This is not easy. Neither was it for Jesus. As He was confronted with the Diabolos, the divider, He was also provided with the "ministering of angels". We, too, have to face the great Divider, the great Prosecutor. His relentless efforts are directed towards the goal of getting us to reject who we are and as a result settle for less. Jesus was tempted to deny His Humanity and so become irrelevant. His temptation was to flaunt His divinity, at the price of His humanity. This would have placed Him outside the human experience. The Incarnation, His coming as the enfleshment of God, would have been a waste of time. “He became like unto us in all things, except sin" and He sacrificed His life for us sinners. We are tempted to deny our humanity, our sinfulness, our need for God and claim that we ourselves are God. When we claim we are by our nature self-sufficient and can live our lives independent of everyone and everything we are listening to the voice of the Deceiver. We buy into the false message the lie, are so are cut off, divided from The Source of all our strength.

We have heard that old adage and it is so true here, "Divide and destroy". We have a choice to make. We make this choice each and every moment of each and every day. There is never a moment this drama in not being acted out in our lives. There is no respite in this spiritual war being waged in the depths of our souls. Here is the choice, are we going to listen to the voices of division, deceit, and prosecution, or are we going to listen to the voice that calls out, unceasingly, to each one of us “You are my beloved daughter/son, In each one of us He IS well pleased?". How often do we take the time out just to reflect on and celebrate in some way this, our deepest reality. Our God is ever and always pleased with us, not because we are good, but because He is the essence of goodness and we are His beloved. It is essential we have some presence, male or female, who mirrors that reality. If that is not our experience then it will be more difficult for us to believe that reality and live out our lives accordingly. That difficulty is sometimes overcome by grace.
Another way of understanding grace is , "God's love in action". Our God has this fundamental commitment to us sinners. We call that mercy. At mass we hear those Greek words, sung repeatedly, Kyrie Eleison, what are we doing? We are crying out to experience the mercy of God. What does this word mercy mean?

The word in English is the translation of the Greek word eleos. This word has the same ultimate root as the old Greek word for oil, or precisely, olive oil; a substance which was used extensively as a soothing agent for bruises and minor wounds. The oil was poured into the wound and gently massaged in, thus soothing, comforting and making whole the wounded part. The Hebrew word which is also translated as eleos and mercy is hesed, and means steadfast love. The Greek words for " Lord have mercy", are Kyrie Elison- that is to say, "Lord sooth me, comfort me, take away my pain, show me Your steadfast love." Thus the mercy does not refer so much to justice and acquittal-a very western interpretation-but to the infinite loving- kindness of God, and His compassion for His suffering children! It is in this sense that we pray "Lord have mercy" with great frequency...."

Does not the above, provide, both you and I, a real profound reason to celebrate. We have been endowed with that certain something, grace, that brings to to be able to call out to our gracious God, I am in such a desperate need for your soothing, comforting love. This can be our prayer; I have listened to that other voice and it deceived me into thing you were so awe-ful I would never be able to earn or deserve your love again. I bought the lie, that my sin was too heinous in your sight, that I could not believe you would have understanding and compassion for one such as me. I felt I was not good enough for you. You want all of us to be as perfect as Your Son was. Even though He was like us He never sinned. That shame has led me to places where I made every effort to Hide from you. For you there is no dark place for me to hide. All is light for you. In the end Your light overcame the prison of darkness and I was able to once more walk in and bask in the rays of Your love. I am now free to enjoy, again, Your loving presence. The road has been long and rocky.

The desert has been harsh, barren and threatening. You have used my tears so that desert now, blooms and blossoms, with the beauty of new life and new understanding. Out of the desert one emerges with a new freedom. A freedom that comes with a deeper understanding of Your soothing, comforting love? Lord I now see, it was good to go into the wasteland and come to know You are you really are, not Who I thought you to be. You have lead me to a greater freedom and in that freedom I choose to celebrate.

Treasure To Be....Protected....Preserved....Defended

In the early days, I was never trilled to have to preach on Transfiguration Sunday. I was not able to connect with the Gospel episode. The sermon was often more of a "head trip" than a "heart trip". Over the many years, as Incarnational Theology became more of a reality for me, layers of meaning began to open up.

For starters, the message of this Sunday was an influence on the second station of The Cross at St. Andrew The Apostle. When one looks closely at that station you will see a great something in the face of that mature woman. The reason for this is to offer encouragement to the station follower. The stations are offered as a way to connect the suffering story of Jesus, The God-man, with our story of daily suffering. They are one and the same. Just as the sufferings of Jesus led to new life, and a new wisdom. A wisdom not easily grasped. None the less, this wisdom is offered to us and becomes ours over time, as we bring our sufferings to all our prayer practices. In that second station one sees a wisdom there, written by the lines on time on that woman's face. What she has suffered over the years gives has given her that something that draws and attracts us to her. Look at her eyes. They are eyes full of hope. Her eyes convey that necessary message of hope. That is the message of this station.
You do not pass by that station very easily. Our sufferings, seen as the sufferings of Jesus Christ today, are then the pathway to a new wisdom. This path leads us to not just a new understanding and a new way of just existing, but a new way of living. As we are in the early stage of our Lentenintensity we too are in great need of encouragement. We are in deep need of hope. We are in the need of that act of humility which allows us to accept the limitations of our humanity, so as to surrender into the waiting arms of a mercy-full and compassionate God. So easily desired, so difficult to allow to happen.

As that "Wisdom Mother" of the second station, offers us so much, so too, the scene painted in the Gospel. Jesus has announced He was going to suffer and die. Peter reacted, as he so often did, not in a good way. He had to be put in his place. (I love Peter. He must have been an Irishman!!! He was always speaking and acting before he thought.) Jesus wanted to strengthen the Apostles for all that was going to happen. He wanted to teach them that His suffering and death was not to be an end. He would have life after death. Did they get the message? No, we too find it difficult to accept that each death is not the end, but the beginning of a new way of living. We will become “better or bitter” in so far as we accept or deny that reality. We are always going through the grieving process. There are always deaths to face. Some small, some shattering, all are pain-full. Over the years we find out the greater the loss the greater the resulting "gift". A gift that is always slowly unwrapped within the life we lead. Just as death is a certainty in this life so also is resurrection, transformation and transfiguration.

In The Transfiguration, the divinity shone through the humanity of Jesus. That which shone through Our Brother, is also within us, His adopted sisters and brothers. What He had by nature we posses because of grace. This reality, this mysterious, cannot be denied. The denial by ourselves or another either through violent word or action, does not negate the reality. We all have this mysterious gift. "At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will.” “This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty IS THE PURE GLORY OF GOD WITHIN US. It is so to speak His name written within us....like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely.” So wrote Thomas Merton in a letter to Henri Nouwen. No wonder Merton said, ' Be who you already are" and that will be enough. Easier said than done.

We are in a constant battle to preserve and sometimes defend our innate dignity from those who have this sick desire to put us down and trigger feelings of not being good enough. The weapon of choice of these individuals is toxic shame. A spiritual death awaits those who are victimized by this weapon of spiritual death. Toxic shame and a healthy spirituality are mutually exclusive. How often do we hear politicians say to an opponent “SHAME on you", or worse still a parent to a child, "I am ashamed of you"? We must never tolerate words like dumb, stupid, shut up and a word that has hit the news - slut. These words are shaming words and are never justified in being used. Shame was a weapon used in an effort to negate the truth spoken. We must always reverence the truth of another in the same way as we want our truth to be listen to and respected. That is when dialogue becomes a reality and bridges are built. When I want to shame you, I deny your truth and have no willingness to listen to a different way of seeing and thinking. How sad it is for our little ones to be so exposed to such spiritual and sexual violence. There is something else to be considered when a person is shamed it takes a long process for that person to get over the wounding. Yes, in each shaming action a wound is inflicted. Spiritual and psychological wounds are not, and I repeat - NOT, healed over night. It takes a long process of recovery. Shame is so readily handed out. We saw that with the priest who refused The Eucharist to a daughter at her mother's funeral. We also have been exposed to the shaming on the airwaves. These events will disappear from the public eye. The hell of living in toxic shame is not so easily exorcised. That last word was consciously chosen.

In ending, I pray that each of you will take the time to become more aware, more conscious and more accepting of that brilliant diamond deep within. You MUST ask God for His strengthening love to make this happen. Why God? If you have been shamed and who has not? Those who have been shamed in any way you do not possess the belief that within them is the necessary strength. That is the lie we are asked to believe in. I am sorry to say, your strength has been destroyed by the shaming act. Be not afraid, with God all things are possible, with Him there is nothing impossible. Slowly, by healthy actions, self worth is recovered. Recovery is a process. It is the result of many, many healthy actions. But, it does happen when desired. Then, in time, that same light which shone so brightly through the humanity will again permeate your heart, soul and mind. You will become more and more of a testament that evil does not win.

God Is The Lord of life. You now realize your anger has been given to defend your boundaries. This realization is LIFE CHANGING. The life you are now living is way beyond your imagination. By grace, you have "become a new creation and have clothed yourself in Christ", the risen One. There is more of a conscious aware that something is so very new and different. As it was with Him, so it is now with you, and will be forever and ever.

Linsanity....Lentsanity....Life In....Ashes

A new word has entered the vocabulary of all basketball fans, and in the that of the Knicks fans, in particular. It is the word Linsanity. There in nowhere to go that this word does not surface. This stems from the transformation of a team by the emergence of Jeremy Lin. It appears, from what I can gather, his play has saved the Knicks year and the job of the head coach. Just a short time ago Jeremy was riding the bench and he was at the end of the bench as well. His basketball career was in ashes. Then out of the blue he was called on to play. The rest, as we all know, is history. Out of the ashes of his basketball life, a new life has sprung. With this new life the hopes and dreams on many are renewed. The Knicks have now a good chance to go to the play-offs and even do some damage. In that second season, anything can and does happen. Linsanity has become a reality that has to be to be faced. It will only be a matter of time before Linsanity will pass. It will live on, however, only in the memories of those many, many basketball fans who were lucky enough to experience this recent phenomenon. This is the nature of the game. It is the nature of fame. “What is seen is transitory, what is unseen lasts forever", scripture is want to remind us.

This time each year, however, we are caught up in different reality. This reality is not confined to any one group. This reality reaches out to, literally, billions. It is called Lentsanity. Lentsanity, when entered into, results in life changing. The practices that come with Lentsanity have with them, the guarantee of change. This reality leads not to just another season, it leads to a life beyond. We will be lead into a life beyond our present human experience. Our new reality, is a reality beyond human imagination. This new way of living cones at a price. Our Lenten journey leads us into the desert experience of failure, rejection, alienation. In the solitude of the desert we have to face ourselves as we really are. We, like Jesus, will be confronted by the Devil. Another name for the Devil is the divider. The Devil wants us to reject our essential goodness. We will be tempted to concentrate on what is wrong, rather than to celebrate the goodness, The Godliness within. Our sins, our failures, all that exists in our shadow are that which allows us to leave behind guilt, fear and shame, so as to really experience the length and depth of the mercy of God. What happens in our desert experience mirrors that of the chosen people of the Old Testament. In the desert they were formed as God’s own, not through their great successes but through failure after failure. The desert was their school of spiritual formation. As it was with the first chosen people, so it is with us who are the new chosen people.

Success, achievement, power, popularity, pleasure and control for a time will satisfy us. The only sad part is that this feeling does not last. Then what do we do? We go after a greater, more intense feeling than we had previously. It goes on and on. The result is not what we wanted or desired, but the opposite. How often in grasping for everything do we end up with nothing. No inner happiness, no peace of mind and no nourishing love relationships. We in our efforts to avoid the desert experience, which is of its essence life giving, we create a place where only death and destruction rule. This is repeated again and again. There is that hope that this time it is going to be different. Is It? NO, it is not. Doing the same thing expecting different results, is the definition of insanity. WE need a way back to an authentic human life. As we accept what is offered by Lentsanity we return to sane behavior. Is this going to happen easily and without a struggle? No way. Never did, never will. We have to be somehow shocked. We need a basin of cold water right in the face so as to awaken to the loss, to the destruction. We must be confronted that our lives are a real mess. All of our great dreams are just lying there in ashes. All seems and the operative word is seems. All is not lost. Where there is an end there is also a new beginning. As we enter into the depths of our Lentsanity, where we face those actions which triggered the ash making ,we are guided throughout with the gentle, encouraging lens of The Paschal Mystery. We will be lead to see and eventually accept that death is NOT the end, it is the BEGINNING of something new and better. There is then, life in ashes. So that when our life is in ashes, a new life, a new way of living is on its way. There is in hidden deep within the ashes, a warm coal, an eternal light the discovery of both is why we enter the realm of LENTSANITY, again, again and again.

Over these many years I have relayed the following incident more than once. So here I go, one more time. One Ash Wednesday a priest was distributing ashes to the community. Everything was going along as usual. Each parishioner came forward and presented their foreheads to receive the ashes. One person however came forward and changed things up. He presented his tongue, as if he was to receive the Eucharist. This rather well know priest, at that time, promptly made the sing of the cross with the ashes, on his tongue. What a shock that must have been on the part of the recipient? How many of us would go to receive the ashes if we were required to receive them on the tongue? Yet, I would like to suggest that practice would bring home way more clearly and dramatically, the essential message of Ash Wednesday and the season it ushers in.

Ever taste ashes? I have many times. To tell the truth, I have never acquired a taste for them. I have related before how it was my job while back in Ireland, to start the fire in the morning. The night before they went to bed my parents would have banked down the fire. The plan was to have a few hot coals hidden in the ashes. I had to search through the ashes to find those coals. Then I had to go about building a fire from sometimes just one hot coal. I would get some paper and very dry kindling. In order to get a flame you had to blow on the little mound of hot coal, paper and kindling. Well when I blew, many, many times I blew on the ashes, rather than what I intended. Then the ashes would rise up and get on my face, would go up my nose, into my eyes and into my mouth. Not very appetizing, to say the least. The ashes were the result of the burning, the ending of something, that at one time, was alive and flourishing. Yet, hidden away amidst all that appeared to be lifeless, the fire of life and the source of light, was hidden. What a great simile, what a great paradigm for this time we are given to be the source of our transformation and transfiguration. I wonder whether you now agree there would be any great benefit into being shocked with ashes on the tongue.

Our Leper Meets....Encounters The Healer Within....And??

Last week we received a Valentine's Day card from our gracious and passionate God. His great passion for humankind was presented to us in that wonder-full encounter between Jesus and the leper. The leper, the outcast, the alienated one, was touched by Him who came to bring every one, and everything, into a oneness. In that touching there was instant, immediate transformation. Lives were forever changed. One was reunited with the family of humankind, The Other became the alienated One, condemned to a life of isolation. He who created all that is, is now forced to live apart from His greatest creation.

What was the trigger for this wonder-full, incomprehensible, exchange of realities? It was pity. As we read the scriptures we see, in so many of the miracles of Jesus, first of all a human response to a human need, on the part of Jesus. To describe the healthy, and so, holy feeling response the word pity is used. That word pity shows up again and again wherever the power of the divinity is revealed. Jesus, when He is told that Lazarus, His good friend was dead, what did He do first? He cried. (The shortest sentence in the Bible.) He did not say, "No sweat. I will go and work a miracle. Just relax and I will take care of everything." No. First came the human response. He embraced His feelings publically. The sorrow He felt, and felt deeply, was expressed openly. There was no effort to hide it. We have so much to learn about the process of grieving. In another instance, Jesus is moved to pity to see the only son of a widow being borne out from the city of Naim. Again, that human response was followed by a raising from the dead. We see there is a human need, followed by a human response, followed by the manifestation of divine power.

We now have to ask ourselves what is that part of me, the leper within, that needs the empathy, compassion, that was extended to the many in the scriptures? We all have that need. Why? Because, this demands honesty, we all have within us that from which we want to isolate from. It is that part of our inner self, our inner reality, where we experience alienation. That is the part that is dead to life. Because of this we exist, we do not live. What do we need? We need a life saving, a life giving encounter, with a Source, so much greater than we are. How does this happen? We embrace often with great, great difficulty, exhortation of St. Francis, "Kiss the leper within". We have to show love, or just have the desire to show love, to that part we/l am driven to abhor. This, as I have said, is anything but easy. We have to face that which wants to keep un-free, locked away in the dungeon of despair, just waiting, not to live, but to expire. We have to face the deadly, insidious power of toxic shame.

Toxic shame is the source of that that is unhealthy. All that is death dealing, finds its roots in toxic shame. Toxic shame wants to destroy that which we find so difficult to accept and embrace. Because of the manifestation of "the leper within”, we are lead to judge ourselves as, “LESS THAN”. (This is what is called a shame attack.) We have to deal with the feelings of not being "good enough". We are so afraid to own the “leper part”, because we have never been given the right to be anything less than perfect. It has never been ok not to be ok. What a "hell on earth" that is. Healthy shame gives one the permission to be human. Healthy shame enables us to own the fact we are all PERFECTLY IMPERFECT. When we are not claiming that reality, we are as the result, scared of going inside ourselves, of going deep. We are afraid of what else will be revealed. This unnecessary fear, deprives us of the spiritual journey, which is all about going deep. As we are led into the depths where we discover the beauty hidden within the depths of who we really are. When this does not occur, we then settle for an existence based on religiosity. This keeps us isolated from who we really are, limited human beings. There are then unreasonable demands and expectations placed on us. If these demands and expectations are not met, boy do we go into the dumper. (A classic shame attack.) This keeps us locked up in the prison of guilt and fear, which are so often the companions of death dealing previously mentioned - shame. This brings about spiritual paralysis.

The leper brought himself to Jesus. What an act of courage and faith that was. Ever notice that courage and faith somehow compliment each other. Can you have one without the other? The paralytic was brought into the presence. To get him into the presence of Jesus, these buddies of his had to use some real ingenuity. They were not going to let a little obstacle like a roof get in the way. What, then, are our excuses, not reasons, for keeping ourselves in isolation and alienation? What are the feelings of toxic shame we allow, yes, we allow, to deprive ourselves of life and the fullness of life. This "fullness of life” is what our God wishes for us and has placed within us. He has placed His treasure deep, deep within. We must ask for the faith and courage to allow ourselves to believe this great miracle of grace. Yes it is up to each one to allow the shower of endless, pity and compassion to wash over us. The next time you take a shower, here is something to do and then continue to practice. As the water is flowing, think of some aspect of pity you need at that moment or at this stage in your life. Some days it will be compassion, other days empathy, or maybe it is sympathy, a sense of a deep felt sorrow. All these must be first directed to the "leper within”. We will then be led to realize what is offered to others comes from the depths where the leper, the paralytic, the deaf, the lame, the blind, the dumb and The Risen Healer, all dwell as one.

The Price of .......Freedom

Being a leper in the time of Jesus was to live an inhuman existence. The leper was forced, by law, to live a life of isolation, alienation, desolation, suffering and sorrow. The leper was forbidden to participate in community activities. She/he was not allowed to take part in religious ceremonies. The worship of the Temple was not the lepers experience. They were treated as a nonperson. The closest they were able to come to The Temple was the village of, wait for it, Bethany. Bethany means “the town” of “the lowly". (Do you recall WHO it was that hung out in Bethany?) There they were able to gaze on that, which they were unable to enter, and participate in it's celebrations. The leper was forced, then, to live in the waste lands. Cut off from family and friends. Their life was a life of quiet desperation.

I wonder whether it was that desperation that drove the leper of the Gospel to approach Jesus. In another Gospel episode Jesus encounters a band of lepers. They had each other, this leper had no one. He was on his own. Being alone would only add to the feelings of isolation and alienation. What was that source of the strength, belief that moved him to not only approach Jesus, but to word his inner belief in the Word in front of him? “If you wish, you can make me clean." It is one thing to express a wish and another thing to have to wait for a response to the request. What were the heartfelt feelings of the leper? Maybe, "He is my only chance for a new life and a new way of living", or "Will He end my hellish existence, so I can rejoin my family and friends?". What a feeling of relief it would be, to be able to see people, approach them freely, and not have to cry out "unclean, unclean?"

Now imagine what went on in that man's heart as he looked on Him of Whom he made his desperate request? What was it like to have to wait for a response? Can we ever come close to grasping the surprise which overwhelmed him, as he saw Jesus raise up His arm and did, the unthinkable. As Jesus stretched out His arm he must have thought,
“He is stretching out His arm and I am going to receive a blessing. That will be just another disappointment. What can I really expect, I am cursed, am I not? Do we not believe this
disease, in fact any disease, is a way God communicates His disapproval of a person. It is true I am, so cursed. What is this is He reaching out to touch me? He must be nuts? does He not know the penalty that goes with touching a leper? This guy is supposed to be a rabbi, a teacher of the law, yet it looks like He is going to break the law? Boy is He going to suffer for this. Wait until the Scribes, and Pharisees hear about this. He is toast." Yet the arm kept on coming, and coming, and finally, Jesus touched Him. Wow!! How must have the crowd be stunned? Jesus’ concern was for the human being in front of Him, and his human needs.

When was the last time this leper experienced the touch of another human being? How often would he have settled, just for that human touch? There came, to him immediately, more than the acceptance of a touch. There came to him, something beyond explanation. He began to feel so completely different. His scabbed skin began to change, it began to glow with new life. Where there were the stumps of toes, and fingers, new growth suddenly appeared. He became a new man. He is again united with his fellow human beings. He is now able to enter The Temple and participate in liturgical worship. This is the beginning of a whole new life of freedom for him. That is the good news. There are however two sides to every story. Because of this freeing action, there were consequences for the Liberator.

When Jesus, The Liberator, freed the leper, He, as it were took his place. Jesus in that touching of the leper Himself became the outcast. In that act of touching, He surrendered His freedom. He became as it unfree, so another could be free. This was a foreshadowing of Him surrendering His life, so we could have the fullness of life. In the field of checks and balances God's way makes no sense. Are we not warned though, "God's ways are not our ways". His way of loving always leaves us speechless. He, becoming an outcast. WOW!!!!, is all one can say. "Wonder of wonders" how mysterious, how incomprehensible, what passionate love our God has for us? As it was, so it is, and ever shall be. Where do I encounter the leper within?

This Gospel, I suggest, is God's Valentine's card. This Gospel episode paints a wonder-full picture of the passionate, unconditioned love of our Father God. Jesus is not constrained by the accepted law of that time. His response to the leper was guided by a new law, the law of compassionate, merciful, love. This was a love that was triggered by the human response of The Man Jesus to a human need. First came the feelings of pity, then the power of The Divinity was manifested. The miracle happened.

This is getting real long. Hopefully it will come to an end next week, as the pity of God, in the mission and ministry of Jesus is reflected on.

The Flowering That Comes From....Death/Loss

Without knowing it, I had a great start to this week’s effort. I had the absolute delight to celebrate Mass last week with the kids. I always give them a chance, or in some cases, take the risk, to ask questions.
One boy asked, “Was it alright to get mad? ", and a girl asked whether it "was alright to cry?”. Two great questions why? Because, they lay the foundation for healthy grieving. Healthy grieving is essential if we are to recover from any loss, whatever that loss may be. When we do not grieve in a healthy manner, or we are not allowed to do so because of unhealthy circumstances, we will suffer big time. Did you see in the paper where there is an effort to describe grieving as a mental disorder? I would like to suggest, that it is ONLY when we do not do the healthy grieving, then we have to face some mental challenges.

I have read that we in America do not grieve enough. We hide the reality of death. The first shock, of the many, was when I was sent to a funeral parlor to say the Rosary for a person who had died. That was a serious cultural shock. I was not able to get around that one and still am not able to become reconciled with the practice. When I was growing up, you went to visit the home where the corpse was laid out. No embalming, as the person died, so they were before you. What is done here? The corpse is all done up as if will cover up the finality of her/his death. You went to the room where the waking was taking place. There you were exposed to the active mourning and crying. You expressed your condolences. You got down on your knees and said your prayers. Then, you kissed the dead person goodbye. Yes, you read correctly. You kissed some part of the face.
That was the practice. It was after that when you had some refreshments. All of this was part and parcel of the reality, of the life of “The Little Church of The Home”. How far removed we are from such a healthy practice in dealing with death. You can understand why I am surprised when asked by people "is it alright to bring children to the mortuary? ". Where else are they going to come across the finality of loss? Where are they going to receive the message that it is not just ok to cry, it is both necessary and essential for healthy growth. We will not be mentally healthy until the tears are shed.

I told the young boy that it is more than ok to get angry, not mad. (Dogs go mad, people get angry). Again, getting angry is both necessary and essential action for each person, so as to recover from a loss. A family that has suffered a loss must also grieve as a family. There are no exceptions. We can minimize the loss, but to our own peril. I have seen so very often the destruction brought about because the grieving process did not take place. How many unnecessary divorces have taken place because one, or both parents do not grieve healthily. Rather than process the anger they transfer to one another. Rather than do the necessary feeling work, the feelings are stuffed and the end is inevitable. That is so sad to see. How many divorces take place years after a family death, but the root cause was, one person failed to do the healthy grieving.

How often do we hear those well-meaning, but very toxic, words; “You can try again”, “You are young enough to get married again", "she/he has gone to a better place". Last, but not least, the really spiritually sick one, "it was God's will". You can add to that list those words that were directed at you, or your loved ones at the time of loss. You did not want this pious jargon, you wanted a healing presence. You desired to be reverenced where you were at, in your place of powerlessness, frustration ,and anger.

You did not want to be spoken to, you wanted to be just held. How blessed are you to have such a presence in your life. That person stands with you and by you. There are no pious words, no can’t phrases, to minimize what you are feeling. How often those phrases are used because those who use them, are so uncomfortable dealing with honest feelings. It is not their fault. That is how they are wired because of the sterile environment they were raised in. There was the unwritten rule, you do not express any honest feeling that may challenge “THE FAMILY SECRET". There was the expectation that they be "perfectly nice", resulting in them being very emotionally sick. What a price some of these “good children" pay. It takes tremendous courage to reject the sick family system, so as to live in the freedom of who one is in the unconditioned, unlimited, unrestricted love of our Gracious God. As one comes to discover they are the beloved of the Living God, everything changes. When we reach that point, and most especially after we desire a Mary, Mother Mary, who was promised so much by God's angel, and where did she end up? We are told in John’s Gospel that she stood silently, by the cross of her Savior Son. Yes, she just stood, as helpless, and as powerless, as each one of us is, in the face of death.

"But there is one who has all power, that one is God." The God of the Psalmist Who is close to,....and is able to heal the brokenhearted." We must make the conscious effort to welcome God into the space that loss has created. If Goodness, God, does not fill up that space, then there is the GUARANTEE that evil will. Both the physical and spiritual life do NOT tolerate a vacuum. It is up to us then to do the feeling work, feel, experience, express and then let go. Those not comfortable with feelings, just want to pray about it, without first doing the three steps. Then there is wonder and concern why there is no let up. We are told now it takes three to five years to recover from a loss. Yes, three to five years is necessary. That is why so many second marriages do not work out. The rate of divorce when it comes to such unions is much higher that those who are married for the first time. How many second marriages are entered into without allowing the necessary healing to take place from the previous lost relationship?

“Pain breaks the shell that limits our understanding." (Gibran ) Our faith and hope allows us to break open the “shell" of pain. Our faith in the Death and Resurrection opens up a whole new life. This new life BEGINS with the ending of the old. The loss IS the beginning of a new way of living. A new life, which is actually the old way being transformed as the result of loss, a real death. Death then, is NOT an end, it is THE BEGINNING of a new and, dare I say, a better way of living. Our anger has been transformed into compassion. Our tears have watered the garden of our souls, in which has blossomed the flowers, of empathy and understanding. These flowers are our gifts. They are to offered to those who are now struggling with that, from which these came. “O death where is thy sting?"

The Chapters of our Life....

Last week there was the suggestion that each one of our lives is a Bible. Now the Bible is not ONE book, it is a LIBRARY of books. Each book was written at a unique time to tell an unique story. What is this unique story? It is the story about God dealing with humankind, and His creation. This relationship was lived out in a particular time and space. Yet, the reality of what is described has a life way beyond time and space. That which we read about in The Bible is a living description of my life today. Our lives are a continuation of The Bible story. John Shea, “We are God's story". When it comes to understanding God, we have to let go of the restraints of time and space. We are dealing with That which is beyond our control, no matter how much, or how deeply, we desire to control. We cannot define God, and so control God. In Africa, there is this saying "to define is to kill". This is a necessary, pre-requisite for a deep understanding of all things spiritual. "With God all things are possible.....with God nothing is impossible." Must be a constant mantra for each one of us, as we tell God's story by the life we lead.

The Bible is a very long story. It is the story of all human beings, their lived, real, relationship with their Creator. The means of telling the story are many and varied. In this library, we call the Bible, we read history, poetry, mythology, wisdom and theology. A whole book of prayers is given to us, as models for our prayer. Each book and sometimes books within the one book, are placed before us to meet a need. All are presented as The Source of
Encouragement and counsel. It isThe Source of information, leading to formation. Through this formation, we will then be lead to understand that formation is NOT enough. We need contemplation, so as to be led into The Mystery, lying patiently, waiting for us to discover. That Lived Life, which is beyond what we read and see will be revealed, but in Mystery's time. This time we are called to live in, is Kairos time. Many feel that this stage is the last step. How dangerous that thinking is. This way of seeing can and does lead to all sorts of unhealthy thinking and action. Contemplation, of necessity, leads us to action. "Contemplative action" is the goal of all Catholic Christians. K. Rahner has said that there will be a time where you will have only two groups left in the world, contemplatives and atheists.

"How then, are we to approach The Bible and as a consequence all spiritual reading. Henri Nouwen has written the following; “Reading often means gathering information, acquiring new insights and knowledge, and mastering a new field. It can lead to degrees, diplomas and certificates. Spiritual reading, however, is different. It means not simply reading about spiritual but also reading about spiritual things in a spiritual way. That requires a willingness not just to read but to be read, not just to master but to be mastered by words. As long as we read the Bible or a spiritual book simple to acquire knowledge, our reading does not help us in our spiritual lives. We can become very knowledgeable about spiritual matters without becoming spiritual people.

As we read spiritually about spiritual things, we open our hearts to God's voice. Sometimes we must be willing to put down the book we are reading and just listen to what God is saying to us through its words......Spiritual reading is food for our souls. As we slowly let the words of the Bible or a good spiritual book enter into our minds and descend into our hearts, we become different people. The Word gradually becomes flesh in us and transforms our whole being. THUS SPIRITUAL READING IS A CONTINUING INCARNATION OF THE DIVINE WORD WITHIN US. In and through Jesus, the Christ, God became flesh long ago. In and through our reading of God's Word and our reflection on I, God becomes flesh in us now and makes us into living Christs for today. “Let us keep reading God's Word with love and great reverence"

Have you ever reflected on the library of books your life is? There is your history book, now seen as the continuation of salvation history. Your story IS God's story. What is The Wisdom book you have within which is yours because you how your God had taken the pain and challenges of life and revealed gifts beyond measure. These gifts are, in part; patience, kindness, empathy, compassion, sensitivity, the ability to understand and not stand in judgement. These gifts, I am sorry to say, can only come to us from bringing our angers and frustrations to prayer. By this action, we are surrendering, accepting defeat, accepting our inability to cope. This is NOT LOSS, this is the way it is in the spiritual life, in these moments of loss, and surrender and allow God to transform that which we definitely do not want in our lives. You have the mythology of your dreams, to take you where your reality really is. You have the book of sacred prayers written by your daily actions directed by The Holy Spirit. You have your unique theology. This theology is formed by that which has come to you through The Spirit within revealing a unique knowledge of God. In the history of the church we had what was known as the “Teaching authority of the people". Were not many of our saints declared by the people, and accepted the universal church? There is your inner authority, as well as there is the outer authority. You have The Book of Music to be shared and The Book of Poetry. Each day, event, season, has given us that song, that poem which will console, gladden the hearts of those who listen to the language of the heart. We need more "heart to heart” encounters so this journey through the "vail of tears” may be one of growth and discovery, leading to a life of Joy.

Reverence then your story, and the story it tells. In that which lies behind your life, dwells Life Itself. You are the dwelling place of Mystery.
Your life then is...???????

The Good News Lived....Is Gospel

I am back from Mass. As I reflect back on the scripture readings, they appeared to be more appropriate for the season of Lent, not for the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Then again, on second thought, the encouraging message offered is timeless. We, because we are human, are in constant need of this reminder. In the sacred readings, the prophet Jesus encourages us to "repent and believe in the gospel". In other words, we are to repent and believe in The Good News. This is a call to perform two actions. We are to first of all, repent, then we are to believe in the good news of the gospel. In practice we are to turn around from the direction we are going in, and go the opposite way. In other words, make a u-turn. Our spiritual journey demands many, many, u-turns. When we make such a turn, we are admitting "I am going in the wrong direction, and must change direction". We make the turn because of some new information that was revealed to us. To keep going in the old direction would not get us to where we intended to go. With the new information came a new direction. As we travel in this new direction, we gain confidence that we will reach our destination. The attitude has changed as well. There is that great inner feeling, which I cannot describe, knowing you are on the right path, the right trail. With that feeling comes a great sense of freedom and enjoyment.
When I hike in a new area I always have a map. Even with a map I can get lost. (I can get lost in a bath tub.) There is real fear in being lost. That fear is relieved when someone appears who knows the right direction and takes the time to share that knowledge in a way I can understand. Small words in short sentences, is my preferred way to hear 'the good news' of new directions. So often, the new information demanded I double back and go in the opposite direction. This act of faith is both humbling and freeing. So it is with the "good news” that comes to us from The Gospel of Jesus Christ. All "good news", in any form, is intended to direct us safely home . This results in that great feeling one gets when after enduring a troublesome, challenging part of a hike one sees clearly where one is to go. There is a deep need to shout out in joyous freedom. "WOW….WOW….WOW, I MADE IT." I would like to suggest this is a paradigm to help us communicate the experience of the spiritual reality, both hidden and revealed, in that which we call, life.
By our birth we have been placed on a path to travel, a trail to hike, that will eventually lead us to,"the fullness of life”. This 'fullness’ is also called The Kingdom of God. This is, as you well know, NOT a temporal kingdom. It is a spiritual kingdom of justice, love and peace. It is an eternal kingdom, which we cannot earn or deserve, because it is a gift. Because of this gift we can freely choose to enter into The Kingdom of, peace, joy, and love, or not. Well, to be very honest, there is a catch, (I can hear you say, “I knew it, this is too good"). We have to ALLOW it to happen. Our egos will fight us tooth and nail on this one. We have become so used to earning, deserving, and qualifying for what we receive, so when such a great gift is freely offered we balk. We begin to calculate what do I have to give in return? What is equal to the gift i have been gifted with? The gift is eternal in its origin. It is "the pearl of great price".
To make it easier for us to get our arms around this “Good News", our gracious God sent His Beloved Son to Incarnate this Good News. He choose our humanity and our everyday living as human beings, as the instruments through which this great mystery is revealed. Jesus came as the lived reality, of that which is offered spiritually. We will be challenged to turn from one way, our selfish, self-centered way of existing, so as to live another, centered way. This u-turn, this turning around frees us to live a life that is truly human and truly free. St. Irenaeus has this wonder-full saying, “The glory of God is the human person fully alive". That is what our God’s plan for us is. We do our best to mess it up. We need to repent from our self-centered way, which leads to a life lived in guilt, fear and shame. We need to turn to a new way of acting which is appropriate for those who are called to live the life of free daughters/sons of a Gracious, merciful God. In this turning, this acting, a wonder-full reality appears. We begin to think of ourselves as the beloved daughter/son. We begin to believe in our beloved-ness and so are lead to live life and live it to the fullest. We begin to live out the reality of the good news. We are fulfilling our God given destiny. It is for this you were born, for this you were created, for this you were anointed, consecrated, to be revealers of that great secret which our world so desperately needs. You then are the contemporary “gospelers", spelling out in your life today what Jesus Christ taught and lived. Your lived everyday life may be the only bible some people will ever get to read. See how much faith our God has in each and every human being, as well as in all of His creation. Want to shout out, “WOW….WOW….WOW”, now?

We Are All Beachcombers!

As we look at our calendars, which measures every day, cronos time-the annual spiritual tsunami has passed. The waves of grace which washed onto the our shores of our souls during the Advent/Christmas/Epiphany, have accomplished their mission. They have come and receded back into the original ocean of infinite, eternal grace. These waves of grace have washed onto the shores of our souls, with what results?

After an ocean storm, you have the beachcomber who searches the beaches. They are seeking, searching for “treasure" left behind, as the result of the storm. It must be so exciting when she/he is surprised by some "gem" washed up on the shore. So at this time, I would like to suggest that each one of us don the mantle of beachcomber. We, too must take the time to seek out, and search out those life giving gifts, treasure that has been deposited on the shores of our souls by the recent "storm". The beachcomber has no shopping list. What she/he discovers is looked on as a gift from the ocean. There is gratitude for what has been gifted. As they can have no expectations, and hence with no expectations, the beachcombers must have an attitude of gratitude for the gift right there before them. They are in gratitude and not resentment. We are here taught the lesson, gratitude and resentment cannot coexist. That is a great lesson to learn. We cannot be grateful, thank-full and resent-full, at the same time. So, there is a choice to be made, by us, and we are responsible for that decision. We are placing ourselves in either gratitude or resentment, nobody else can be blamed, or held responsible. How often I have wished it was healthy to be able to blame somebody else.

Grace, will wash upon the shores of our souls, all that will ever need at any given moment. Our needs are always met, but not in the way we want, or expect. Our needs are always GUARANTEED, our selfish, self centered greed, no way. Our God is so healthy, He will never give us that which is spiritually unhealthy for us. There are times, I have wished, no wanted, my God to be a little more codependent, just a wee bit. It is only when we look back at our lives we see the wisdom of our Father/Mother God in not giving us what we so desperately wanted at the time. Remember that old song that brought this point home? Did it not say that God's greatest gifts were prayers that were NOT answered.

Life, we are told is lived, looking forward, but understood, looking backward. In order to look backward, we have to take the time to stop, look, listen. This process will lead us to
discover the lessons learned, and that which we still have to learn.
This so necessary time is provided by the liturgy, which " is the work of the people." Yes it is work. It is a struggle to let go of all those outward demands so as to pay attention to what our minds, souls, spirit demands of us. This demand is met as we celebrate the community prayer, we call, liturgy. In the time we set aside to celebrate liturgy we celebrate the now moments, we call time. In the celebrations, different layers of meaning are revealed, for us to give reverence. As a consequence, we are led into the ever-deepening mystery of God present in all time. There is NO ordinary time. All time is sacred, all time is holy.

To be connected to The Mystery of The Incarnation as any everyday experience, what must happen? We must allow the lenses of faith to be adjusted by The Optometrist . Through the adjustment, the action of grace, we will become aware of the gifts of The Holy Spirit is placing in our lives. That is what happens in each liturgy. Our ability to see enhanced. We do not just have one adjustment, we need constant adjustment. There is always something new happening in our lives which triggers anxiety and fear. We need a place where we are assured that all of this "stuff" is now being worked into the pattern of our life. We need to be reminded it is this "new life” that God will use to reveal who He is. That trauma, conflict, upheaval is not intended by God, He is not that sick. The moment, that very second that pain, loss, tragedy becomes part of our lives, The Holy Spirit is working it into a new pattern. In this new pattern , which we have created, The Incarnation continues becoming a reality, in this mysterious way "creation continues". We have added our unique touch to God's masterpiece. Try that one on for size!!!

Already, in a recent scriptures this has been made this known to us. In times past, God spoke to humankind in fragmentary and various ways, through the prophets. Now in the fullness of time, God has spoken to us through His Son, His exact representation. How did This Son "speak " about His Father-God? Was it through “two bit words”? No, to teach The prophet Jesus, took from the ordinary events and made the eternal connection. He came as a human being to challenge us to see in all that is authentically human His ongoing presence. The events of Advent/Christmas/Epiphany are alive and well as we continue to discover, ever anew, the living, daily presence, of Mary, Joseph, The Shepherds, and The Angels. Where can they be found TODAY living within you? "The crib within" is a reality. It is a lasting, eternal presence, not a temporary scene to be looked at and forgotten. Just because the visible, physical, cribs have been packed away that does not mean their spirituality has ceased to exist. If that happens, then The Holy Family lived in vain. All they endured was for naught. It was a waste of time. So, let us set aside some time to "waste" in silence, so we can come to discover the many and varied treasures washed upon the shores of our souls. Through the eyes of wonder, we will discover what we need, not what we want, is right there in front of us. So until we meet again good beach combing.

Love....Sexuality...Sacrament

There was a touch of sadness as I journeyed through last Sunday's Liturgy. Something was missing. For the last number of years we celebrated the Feast of The Holy Family on the first Sunday after Christmas. This year we did not have that feast on a Sunday, and it was truly missed by me. I especially missed the old opening prayer. This opening prayer placed the following words in our mouths, minds, and so came into our hearts. Every year it provided an opportunity for each and every person to reflect, anew, on that which is most essential for a healthy, happy, wholesome and holy life. Our deepest wish, then, must be that as we pray this prayer, what we pray for, becomes an ever-deepening reality. We have prayed these simple words, never stopping to reflect on the wonder-full, enlightening, transformative message hidden within.

"Teach us the sanctity of human love, show us the value of family life."

Such simple words? Yet, how profound they are. We ask to be taught ‘the sanctity of human love”. We ask to be taught that this wonder-full, mysterious gift, which we are ever and always wanting to understand, is sacred, is holy. We have to be taught what so many use and abuse is the place where our God encounters us. Where love is, there our God is. Where there is no love, there is no God. We are told the way we are loved is the way we allow God to love us. Is not that scary? How often is imitation “love" used to control and manipulate others. This is so abusive. Why? It is saying to that person, "since God is love, I am asking you to believe the way I “am loving you” is the way your God loves you. [Of course, this is a LIE!] “As I am treating you, expect God to treat you in the same way". Pretty sick!!! But, we have with God, what we have in our human relationships. Yes, this IS the lived experience of so many who want nothing to do with God. They are not denying the True God, they are rejecting the false god, which they are lucky enough to intuitively know to be false. They ARE NOT ATHEISTS. They believe in the true God. These are in fact the prophets who challenge us to get healthy, and so reveal a life giving God that they can be believe in. They have only been exposed to abusive relationships, masquerading as “loving" relationships. Experiences such as this make it so difficult, but not impossible, to have healthy and so a holy life-giving relationship with a living God.

This involves real hard work. It takes the willingness and the courage to really leave home, and leave behind that which is
familiar. We are grounded in our family's way of seeing, acting and believing. When that is not right, or healthy it still takes time and guts to dare move away. It tales real courage to start the development of that which is healthy, and of its essence, life-giving. It is so hard to break away from the old familiar ways. This does not occur in a day, week, or month. That is why there is that “spiritual principle". “We do not think our way into a new way of acting, we act our way into a new way of thinking.” “The longest journey begins with the first step.” The first step is to acknowledge that innate desire to become healthy, and as consequence have a healthy, loving relationship with the real God. We will always receive and become that which is the healthy object of our desires. Deep down we are aching to be once again united with The God Who is our origin and destiny. This Living, Loving God, sees each one through the lens of infinite, patience and kindness. It is a love that does not take offense, and has no resentment to direct at us. Who in our life accepts us like this?

A healthy love of self leads to a healthy celebration of our sexuality. I read that sexuality is not so much about what I do, it is about who I am and who I am doing it with. Way, way back, St. Thomas saw that in marriage, prayer and sex are one and the same. Now how many have ever made that connection? When I used to prepare couples for marriage, I asked the following, "would you put sexuality and prayer in the same sentence?”. Some would not see it in the same paragraph, others not in the same page, while others would not see it in the same chapter or book. There has been a lot written about the sacramentality of sexuality. (A sacrament, with a small “s": is each and every person, place and event which brings one in contact with the deeper realities of life. Ultimately with Reality Itself, that Reality we can call God). We need to recapture the holy, the sacred aspect once again of human love, of human sexuality. As we see so many being abused in grade school, not to mention high-school, it is essential the God centered reality of sexuality must be embraced. It must be embraced by parents, who, because they see, and enjoy the mystery, have an authentic voice with which to speak and share with their children. So much misinformation comes to our young from locker room talk or from sleepovers. Where will the sacramental nature be in those conversations. John Bradshaw in one of his books equates lack of sexual information, is tantamount to sexual abuse. I am saddened to say over the years, I have found this to be so true.

Human love is then the sacrament, which in the Wisdom of God, has become the reality through which God has chosen to reveal who He is. As there are so many layers of understanding when it comes to human love, there are as many layers to be searched through, so as to come to the ultimate goal, a healthy love of ourselves, others, and God. This has been taken from Bishop Morneau, of Green Bay. The Packers are not the only good thing to come out of Green Bay.

My wish for the new year, is that you have the courage, or ask for the courage, to dare to do what it takes to experience the sanctity of human love. This will further expand your understanding of the sanctity of all that is authentically human. Let us journey deeper so we can understand the great connection between a healthy spirituality and the ever-deepening celebration of sexuality.